Things and Thoughts of the Garden 



By The Onlooker. 



Those of us wlio forgot to protect imr nmrc tcmler 

 plants, thinking that the niikl o]jcn weather would 

 continue, got caught when the snow came, and the 

 plants may have a bad time ere we can get at them 

 again and put tilings right. In gardening he who 

 hesitates is lost. Delay in shading a plant, delay in 

 giving ventilation, delay in potting-on a batch of stock, 

 or in pinching back at the crucial time — these things, 

 jtist as much as delay in affording shelter from in- 

 clement weather, are all dangerous. Has the snow 

 done harm to the large evergreens? Here again 

 many a fine specimen has lost a branch or branches 

 through the want of a little timely attention. A few 

 men with long poles can, in an hour or two, greatly 

 relieve the overburdened boughs of some of their 

 weight of snow before the wind may rise. It is wind, 

 ice and snow, or simply wind and snow together, that 

 does the damage, but the efforts even of feeble man 

 can assist the trees and tide them over a ilifhctilt period 



(sometimes). 



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At the Zoological Garden, the Bronx, N. Y., there 

 are some very interesting and beautiful Box edgings, 

 just as there are at George Washington's old home 

 at Mount Vernon, Va. Those at the Zoo are "boxed" 

 in ; in other words, a framework is nailed longi- 

 tudinally over them and on and over this are placed 

 Spruce branches. In this way the true symmetry of 

 outline is rigidly preserved. The same idea can 

 be carried out in protecting borders of tender or 

 barely hardy plants. The air space between the top 

 protection and the soil is valuable in itself, at least 

 I presume it must be, on the same ]n-inciple that the 

 double light sashes are valuable. It is the layer of 

 air between the upper and lower lights that acts as 

 a preventive to excessive or too rapid radiation, the 

 principle of the thermos flask. 



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Who finds Lavender hardy with them, and what are 

 the winter conditions in your section? In northern 

 New Jersey there are several gardens where this 

 plant comes through the winter victoriously, while 

 in New England it fails. Is Massachusetts so very 

 much colder than the region west of the Palisades? In 

 any case this is just one of the plants that is worthy 

 of all the care we can give it. It has the history and 

 memories of ages clinging anmnd it. Let us have 

 "sweet Lavender." 



This latter ])aragr;ipli brings t(i mind the siglit and 

 fragrance of several "scented gardens," a feature that, 

 like several others, might well receive attention. .\ 

 very excellent book b}' D(Miald MacDonald entitled 

 "The Scented Garden." was published some years ago 

 in England. Mr. Alaol)(inald was at one time man- 

 ager of Carter's seed store at Holborn, and left to 

 devote himself to journalism, becoming garden corre- 

 spondent of the Ihiily Tclci^nif'h. one of the great 

 London dailies, and 1 ])resume he is there still. .An- 

 other fertile writer and gardener of good rejjute who 

 wrote a very fine series of papers on scented ]:)lants. 

 on perfumery, on essential oils, and on the whole 

 botany, history and literature of the subiect, was the 

 late F. W. Burbidge, of Trinity College Garden, Dub- 

 lin, flis papers were pul)h'slied in the Journal nf the 



Royal Ihirtiniltural Sccicty. Wliile I ilid not set out 

 with the intention of relating these few facts, never- 

 theless the\' may serve to show that this subject, like 

 nearly every other in our gardening profession, has 

 its sjjccial literature, and the more we go into the 

 study and discussion of things, the more diverse and 

 interesting we find them. An attorney took up wild 

 flowers as a summer study and pastime, thinking he 

 might soon know nearly all there was to know-, but 

 after several months of pretty careful work, he began 

 to feel, as Newton did, that all he had yet picked u]) 

 was as a few pebbles from the shore. .Among the 

 annuals that can be utilized in a scented garden are 

 Marguerite Carnations, Petunias, Mignonette, Helio- 

 trope, Leptosiphon Douglasii, Night-scented Stock, 

 Nicotiana, Sweet Scabious, Verbenas, .Sweet Alyssum, 

 and also the following plants: scented Pelargonium, 

 I'ansies, Roses and Lemon-scented A'erbena (Lippia ' 

 cilri( idora). 



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Professor I'". A. W'aiigh, uf Amherst, Mass.. delivered 

 an interesting address at a meeting at which I had 

 the pleasure of being present last spring, his subject 

 being the advantages, utility and beatity of dwarf 

 fruit trees in gardens. It is safe to say that there are 

 really very few dwarf trained fruit trees in our Amer- 

 ican gardens. They require constant care and skilled 

 handling, while reliable, well-trained help is scarce. 

 Prol)abl}' this is the chief reason why this class of 

 ornamental and useful garden fruit tree is absent 

 from our places. All the same, it is a pity it is so, for 

 the lines of espaliers or cordons along- the back of 

 the tidwer borders or dividing the kitchen garden 

 (|uarters are a very satisfactory sight, good to behold, 

 adding greatly to the garden features. 



H= JtS ^ 



I was interested in reading recenth' one of the 

 iiflicial re])i>rts published by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, dealing with trade at the port of Archangel. 

 northern Russia. That report stated that in the 

 northern part of Finland very little ice forms in some 

 of the channels of the sea there, but the White Sea, 

 in which Archangel is situated, becomes solidly frozen : 

 the e\]ilanation being that in Finland, wliich is but a 

 small way to the westward of Archangel, the influence 

 of the Gulf Stream is still sufficient to make the dif- 

 ference between ice-blocked harbors and the opposite. 

 Some folks are prepared to deny that the Gulf -Stream 

 has an\' influence on the climate of Western Europe. 

 'i'liev would deny, possibly, that Halley's Comet exists 

 because they have not seen it. 



One reason why the New England Coast, especially 

 the northern part of it, is so cold in winter, even 

 although the latitude is further south than that of 

 southern England, is owing largely. I believe, to the 

 Labrador Current, a cold current that comes sweep- 

 ing down from the .Arctic seas, and which heads oft', 

 as it were, any good efl'ects that tlie Gulf Stream 

 mi gilt diftise. 



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Not having been at the annual convention of the 

 National .Association of Gardeners, and not yet having 

 seen the published accounts of the proceedings. T am 

 unaware of what took place. .As a member of the 

 craft ;ind of the association. T earnestly hope that 



